Abstract All sociolinguistic systems, presumably, provide some means of expressing respect (or disrespect), but only some systems have those specially conventionalized linguistic forms that linguists have called “honorifics.” This chapter compares several languages-Javanese, Wolof, Zulu, and ChiBemba-with regard to their construction of honorific expressions and the social and cultural frameworks relevant to them.1 The main question to be explored is whether one can identify any cultural concomitants of linguistic systems in which honorifics occur. Asking that question involves attention to language ideologies and their relationships with linguistic form and social life.